WealthPLAN Partners LLC Has $5.14 Million Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

WealthPLAN Partners LLC reduced its stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG - Free Report) by 13.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,691 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 8,744 shares during the period. WealthPLAN Partners LLC's holdings in Graco were worth $5,136,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Gradient Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graco in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in Graco in the 1st quarter worth about $43,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Graco by 187.8% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 495 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Graco by 220.9% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 690 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eastern Bank purchased a new position in Graco during the third quarter valued at approximately $59,000. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GGG. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. DA Davidson restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $79.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $89.25.

Graco Stock Down 0.8 %

GGG stock traded down $0.68 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $88.40. 161,810 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 728,039. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.03 and a twelve month high of $94.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.27.

Graco (NYSE:GGG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $519.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $538.19 million. Graco had a return on equity of 21.24% and a net margin of 22.87%. The firm's revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.76 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 21st. Graco's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.31, for a total value of $284,004.96. Following the sale, the insider now owns 27,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,406,094.26. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.63% of the company's stock.

About Graco

Graco Inc designs, manufactures, and markets systems and equipment used to move, measure, control, dispense, and spray fluid and powder materials worldwide. The Contractor segment offers sprayers to apply paint to walls and other structures; two-component proportioning systems that are used to spray polyurethane foam and polyurea coatings; and viscous coatings to roofs, as well as markings on roads, parking lots, athletic fields, and floors.